Never lacking chutzpah, Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., the Chief Obstructionist of the Party of No, turned up on Meet the Press Sunday to denounce the Obama administration for creating "a culture of intimidation" that led the IRS to target conservative, non-profit groups for special scrutiny.

His suggestion, that the president was behind the tax agency's alleged misbehavior, was strong; his evidence to support this insinuation was weak. McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, claims the Obama administration has created a "nanny state" that tells Americans what to do -- and uses the powers of government to target its critics.

But when David Gregory, the program's host, pressed McConnell for proof of the president's involvement -- large or small -- in the IRS affair, the senator responded weakly: "I don't think we know what the facts are." The job of the obstructionists is to stay on the attack; to flail away at the enemy, at any cost. They don't defend their positions so much as they simply obfuscate when questioned about them.

Somewhere in McConnell's office there must to a shrine to Eddie Vrdolyak, the onetime Chicago Democratic boss who used the art of political obstruction to keep Harold Washington, that city's first black mayor, from governing the Windy City.

Like Vydolyak, McConnell has used the legislative voting bloc he controls to block the passage of bills and the confirmation of appointees. His goal is not just to assert the authority of the legislature, but also to render useless the powers of the chief executive.

McConnell revealed the legislative game plan of congressional Republicans when he told the National Journal on the eve of the 2010 midterm election: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president." When asked about blocking the Democrats' legislative agenda during a a New York Times interview that same year, McConnell replied: "I wish I had been able to obstruct more."

Little noticed beyond the halls of Congress and its press galleries are efforts by the McConnell-led Republicans to obstruct the Senate's deliberations. The GOP has filibustered nearly every nomination Obama has made to the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, leaving four of that body's 11 judgeships vacant.

Though Republicans hardly needed the motivation, a wing of the conservative Heritage Foundation recently urged GOP lawmakers to forgo passing legislation and work instead to keep the nation's attention on the president's alleged abuses. Not surprisingly, House Republicans are talking more about the IRS scandal, and about who removed a reference to al-Qaeda from the talking points used by the administration to describe the terrorist attack on the U.S. compound in Benghazi, Libya, than immigration reform or gun control. But then that's the modus operandi of this band of congressional obstructionists. They routinely deflect attention away from the important legislative issues -- or keep them from coming to a vote -- and instead focus more on chasing unfounded reports of presidential wrongdoing.

When McConnell was asked by NBC's Gregory why Congress should pursue an investigation of the Benghazi talking points, the Senate Republican leader said the inquiry must continue because "we know the administration kind of made up a tale."

But proof of such an assertion is something obstructionists like McConnell never produce.

DeWayne Wickham writes weekly for USA TODAY.

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